Social media marketing for therapists can feel overwhelming, especially when it comes to balancing authenticity with professionalism. How much should you share? Do you need separate personal and business accounts? And how can you create content that actually attracts the right clients without feeling like you’re constantly selling?
In this episode of The Traveling Therapist Podcast, I sit down with Laura Haley, a content strategist for travel influencers, to talk about what really works when it comes to social media marketing for therapists. We discuss how to blend personal and professional content, why storytelling builds trust, and simple ways to show up consistently without burning out. If you’ve ever felt stuck when it comes to marketing your private practice online, this episode will give you a fresh perspective and actionable strategies to make it easier.
In This Episode, We Explore…
Connect with Laura:
https://www.travelcontentwriting.com/
https://www.instagram.com/travelcontentwriting/
The Travel Creator Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-travel-creator-tips-for-travel-influencers/id1722885111
Connect with me:
Instagram: @thetravelingtherapist_kym
The Traveling Therapist Membership: www.kymtolson.kartra.com/page/travelingtherapistmembership
Revolutionize Your Private Practice with AI Course: www.kymtolson.kartra.com/page/ai
Signup to learn more about life as a Traveling Therapist: https://www.portablepracticemethod.com/free-training
The Traveling Therapist Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/groups/onlineandtraveling/
Bill Like A Boss Insurance Billing Community: www.kymtolson.kartra.com/page/blab
Subscribe to the Podcast:
Apple iTunes | Spotify | Google Podcast | Stitcher | Amazon | Castbox
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Sponsored by Alma: Managing a private practice can be challenging. There are obstacles at every turn — from navigating the credentialing process, to managing finances, to finding new clients. That’s where Alma can help. Alma is on a mission to simplify access to mental health care by focusing first and foremost on supporting clinicians. https://helloalma.com/kym
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Transcript:
Kym: Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Traveling Therapist Podcast. I'm excited today. We have somebody that's not a therapist, but she's in a very cool niche, and I think all of us can relate to what she does for a living. Laura Haley, she's a travel content writer, but she helps people write like authentic content about themselves.
And before we hit record, I was saying like, well, You know, not all the traveling therapists listening are like travel influencers or whatever. Some of them do travel and might want to get some travel influence stuff going on like you never know It's another income stream, but really that that concept of around like, you know in grad school.
We learned Basically, we're not supposed to self disclose anything about ourselves to our clients. We're supposed to be like a blank slate, which none of us really are. A lot of us, once we're in, we, we, we self disclose like in a, like calculated way, almost, you know, to be like build rapport or share a little bit about ourselves, to let them in a little bit, to help them feel like they could trust us, all that stuff, but really it's a struggle.
And then when you talk about social media, like there's this whole boom now around. get on social media, talk about what you do in therapy, and that's going to attract your ideal therapy client to come and work with you. And this is how a lot of therapists market these days. So Laura and I were like, trying to figure out like, how does this fit into the Traveling Therapist podcast?
You know, they're not travel influencers or whatever, but I want to talk about that, like, how do we, like, where's the line, with social media content and sharing about our personal lives and also doing it in a strategic, authentic way that's going to help us. You know, if you're trying to bring new clients in or if you're like me and you're multi passionate You have a million income streams How do I hone down and have like a cohesive brand voice like all of that?
So that's a lot to say Laura to talk about in 30 minutes , but let's dive in I'd love for you to introduce yourself and let's just like have this conversation
Laura: Yes, I have so many thoughts for you. So thanks so much for having me here. I'm Laura. I am a content strategist for travel influencers. Basically, that means I'm the person behind the scenes on the other side of travel influencer marketing, making their businesses work so that they can enjoy the beautiful places they're in.
But what comes up a lot is how much do I share about myself versus like talk about my actual services. And I think where this can relate to therapists or like be a very interesting Corner of this conversation is that a lot of people who are starting, they know they need to show up on social media to talk about their, their business.
And a lot of times people think they need to have 2 accounts, or they might get recommended to start 2 accounts, 1 for your personal life and 1 for your business life. And as a therapist, I could see how that could be. Like, I'm going to share my photos for my family and my friends, but also I might need an account to promote what I do.
And I think the, my recommendation is always to just have one because it's less work. It's way less work to try and manage to, and also you can share both. You can share both about yourself and your services without it feeling like so personal. Like I think people think, oh my gosh, I have to share. About my personal life, but you get to decide how personal you want to be and you can create that extra account If you really want if you really want to stay in touch with you know The family and friends you don't see all the time and show them what you're doing But I think the beauty comes in blending it because most people are like, okay great I know that I need to find A therapist here, but how am I like, am I, what am I going to do?
I'm going to Google online. Like, I want to see who this person is because I need to know if they can relate to me, if they can actually help. Do we have any common commonalities? Do they really understand what I'm like going through? And the best way to do that is to stalk their Instagram or their social media.
Because these days people are using those platforms as search engines It's not just as like, Oh, I'm, I'm gonna go to their website first to see what Kim does. No, I'm gonna look her up on Instagram to get a really clear idea of what she does, and then I'll decide if this is my person or not.
So trying to find a way to blend them will Be far more successful and I think more fun because then people get to know you as like the therapist who does XYZ,
Kym: Cause it's like, if I specialize in OCD or something, I want to see your, Instagram is talking about what you know about OCD. And then maybe some like personal reels about your own OCD. Cause most therapists, honestly, they have a niche. It's because they have the same problem. I mean, really you could just tell a therapist problems by looking at their niches.
It's like, okay, you codependency, chemical dependency, you know, all of that PTSD. Like, it's like, okay, obviously you have some experience. Um, So I, I love that I love hearing you say that,
Laura: that's such a good point because most the time when we're creating content We're constantly thinking about like, oh my gosh Well, will the person on the other end of this find this relatable or want to take action from this? but I think what can make that so much easier to try and answer that question is Is thinking about what you would take action from because like you said a lot of therapists specialize in one area because they might have personal experience in that area And a lot of the times we are our own target audience So the type of content you like to create is the type of content you like to see So like you can just go look at your feed of oh my gosh, this is really resonating with me What is the format of this post?
How can I just? Tweak that to be for my own niche and for my audience because then it also makes content more fun. You're not just like
Kym: it's like not, not disconnected from, if you're making content that you're not really connected to because you think that's who you, the audience you want to attract, it's not going to come across as authentic, I think,
Laura: right and people can tell people can tell when you're creating something that you just feel like you have to create rather than sharing because you are genuinely feeling inspired about a topic or a piece of content and want to share it. I mean, it's just like we can tell when AI writes things versus a real human.
It's the same thing. We can tell when somebody is like, buy my services and I'm just posting this because the world told me I have to versus I am so passionate about helping people with XYZ. I'm going to share about it.
Kym: exactly. And it's like, I mean, for the multi-passionate therapists listening to this that have other income streams, and they know me too, like the traveling therapists, insurance, billing, and AI are my passions, but it all, all of that was born out of like problems I had in my life and I had to figure out a solution for them.
So then I created content around that, like how to help. You know, therapists learn how to build insurance because I had a nightmare story and, you know, I use AI for everything. I'm obsessed with it. So I'm like, now I've got to teach all the therapists how to use AI, you know, and I'm a digital nomad traveling therapist.
So it's like, I got to teach other people how to live this lifestyle, you know, cause I'm doing the same thing. So, yeah, I totally get that. And then creating the content around it is a lot easier because it's like, this actually happened to me today. Like I got a claim denied and what do I do about this?
You know, that kind of thing. Yeah.
Laura: Totally. I think sharing that, that behind the scenes content and by behind the scenes, I mean, okay, you are that did just happen to you, like an insurance claim situation happened and you know that. You know, you have insider information on how to remedy this or like how to prevent this from happening again, sharing that behind the scenes content of like, Oh my gosh, this happened to me today.
This is really frustrating. This is what I'm dealing with. People love to see people are so nosy. We cannot forget they are so nosy and we can use that to our advantage without showing them like our nighttime routine or like your shower like no like we don't need that and you get to decide how nosy you want to share but people love to see what you are doing and what you are creating and i've noticed that as creators are building or even you know you can apply this to therapists of course are building these services or building a new offer If they share about what they're building before they actually launch it, it gets so many people excited.
I just bought I just bought a digital product from somebody who I have been watching her build this digital product for weeks. And I was like, Oh, my gosh, I'm so excited about it. So using your behind the scenes. Daily tasks as content
Kym: Mm.
Laura: will get people more excited about your actual offer and then it shows them like, Oh my gosh, this person really cares about what they're doing.
And look at this cool stuff that they're trying to learn to help me is just like endless, endless content. So everything you're doing in your daily life can be a piece of content. You just can decide how much you want to share about it or not.
Kym: and how do we find the time to do that?
Laura: See, I
Kym: every time I do a podcast i'm like this this program I use right riverside It's like they give you these screenshots at the end I'm, like I really should be taking these screenshots putting them over on instagram and saying oh my god I just did the coolest interview with laura hailey and she's telling me about but it's like You know, I don't have like, I do have a system for social media, but that part's not incorporated into it.
I know you help with that too. Like creators, like how to, how to like, you know, get these systems going. Like, do you have tips for that? I mean, I know that's like kind of what you do and how you help people, but
Laura: do I have tips for that? I do. Okay. It is though, yeah. We can have a million ideas of, of content things, okay? You, like, so many. And you might write them down in different places, like you, it might the, the best ideas we have never, ever, ever come to us when we're sitting in front of our computers, ready to work.
They come to us when we're in the grocery store at like, far away from any sort of technology. We could beautifully capture this in and it's likely that your ideas are like. scattered in a bunch of different places. Maybe they're in some google doc and some physical notebook or in a text message, whatever.
Having just one single place that always moves with you. To dump those content ideas in is going to be life changing. I, it would be awesome if everyone carried around a notebook, but that's like not realistic. So having, I use like a my Apple notes, I have one that's called the dumping ground. And I just, when I'm out and about and I have ideas, they get dumped in there.
And then later I set the time to, this is the hardest part, look at them and decide, okay. What do I, what do I mean by this cryptic note I left myself or like, what is, is this, you know, really viable anymore? That is super helpful. I use, if you want to get like fancier with content organization, I use Asana which is Just a project managing tool.
Really? It is really awesome because you can keep track of your ideas in there of I have a section a column and you can do this in a Google sheet. You can do this in that in the Apple note or in a notebook, whatever something that you'll use. So, like, don't go create a beautiful system just because someone tells you to, and it sounds nice, but I have a column in there that, is for ideas. So it's like, great, I got this idea. I'm not sure yet if it's really gonna work. I'll put it in there. I have another column that is to create. So that means, this idea is valid. I already have ideas for a caption for it or a photo or something. Great, I'm gonna put it in there. And like, that's gonna be my low hanging fruit of content.
And then I have a column that is To schedule or post meaning that piece is ready. I've sat down. I've batched the content. It's ready to go. I just need to like hit publish whatever those 3 columns help me stay organized on the millions of content ideas that come in rather than having like 1 massive running list of content and then you can go back and look at what you've shared and have seen what does perform well, but I would try and keep it simple.
It doesn't have to be something. A beautiful and amazing, but it just has to work with, work for you that you're not going to give up on eventually.
Kym: Oh my God. I've tried about a thousand different systems. , I think we've got it now in Clickup and, and there's like a whole thing with my va and like there's a whole thing. I think we've got it figured out, but it took a lot of work to try to figure out what's gonna work for everybody that we're communicating clearly and,
Laura: It's, it's hard, I know, because it's, you like, hear about a new system or a new tool and you're like, amazing. This is gonna be the one. I'm going to use, I'm going to be this person and then you use it for a day and you're like, no,
Kym: yeah.
Laura: no, that was a good idea for an hour and now it's just not realistic.
So I love to recommend these fun, like set it up systems, but you just have to be super realistic with what you're actually going to do
Kym: I love
Laura: and do it that way. Because otherwise it's, it's not going to work out.
Kym: That's so smart. Yeah,
Laura: tip for making content creation easier is to batch create it. So you'll choose a day on your calendar and maybe an hour, two hours, whatever you can find.
And that is when you're going to sit down and. Create content for whatever you have, like the week, the month, whatever, because it is so much faster to block off two to three hours of time on your calendar to create the posts rather than do it in real time. Like if you have a note on your calendar, that's a great, it's Wednesday.
I'm going to post today. You would be surprised how long it takes, but together that post on the fly. Whereas if you just sat down for two hours to get it all done and then it goes on its own, there's like no better feeling than opening your accounts. And you're like, wow, I forgot. I even
Kym: forgot I even made
Laura: there it is.
That is like, a cheat code to feel, to like, dopamine, to feel like you're ahead.
Kym: I love that. Oh my gosh.
Laura: yeah. It's so, it's a tiny thing. But it is like, it's, that's the hardest part, is making the time to actually do it. And I think people will when they feel the pain of doing the creating on the fly.
Kym: Like me like every single night We're supposed to be watching a tv show and my boyfriend's like, what are you doing? I'm like, well, i'm looking for a b roll because I have nothing to put out tomorrow and i'm gonna just Do this real quick luckily I have the sense of mind sometimes to record b rolls when I'm in pretty places, but, you know, those are
Laura: I know.
Kym: When I say b rolls to anybody listening who doesn't even know what I'm talking about, like, you know, just like, filming yourself working on the computer, or, you know, like, walking around in a pretty place, or just ask my boyfriend to hold the camera while I walk somewhere, you know, that kind of thing. Just to have like, some background to show.
Yeah,
Laura: And you can use those clips over and over and over again, which is the best part. And like, that's the kind of stuff that performs well. As well as like if you, if you pair that b roll with a reel or two. Going out every, you know, two weeks or something, of you talking to the camera. That will get people to connect so well.
Like, having a good mix of giving someone the opportunity to read the text on screen, and then the opportunity to see your face talking to them. Because when we want to buy from someone, we're like, we need to know
Kym: Like, what's
Laura: who they are.
Kym: I even like you?
Laura: Do you have like an insane voice that I couldn't listen to? Like we'd sit in our therapy session and I'd be like, I literally can't hear anything you're saying.
Cause you're just are not my, you're not my person. Like creating that content that tells people who you are or what you're like. We'll go so much farther and then probably, I mean, lead to longer term relationships with your clients.
Kym: yes,
Laura: Reduce the bouncing around trying to find the right person for them.
Kym: Yeah, and it's that, you know, no like trust factor that comes with that like those those talking hand reels I guess you'd call them or the places where you're showing up and just kind of giving a quick lesson or some Tips or something like that where people are like, oh, okay. I could see how you talk. I like your energy You know, you seem to know what you're talking about, like all of that stuff to, to convert like people into wanting to buy from you or work with you as a therapist or whatever you're trying to do with social media.
Yeah.
Laura: I think there's a lot of resistance from people who have never shown or never like spoken to the camera before. To start doing that, that's terrifying for sure. I get it. And I have people say to me, like, I don't know how you just do that. And my advice when this comes up is a couple of things.
The first is that you have to think about the quantity of content people are consuming every single day. Unfortunately, and fortunately, they're not going to remember your face or what you said that first time. Which is great. Because then if you're nervous about sharing yourself, it's like, whatever, I'm gonna post out here, and if someone sees it and remembers, awesome, but also, 90 percent of people are just gonna keep scrolling and never remember your face.
That's far less embarrassing. The other thing is like, you have, this is not, this is stolen from social media strategies I work with, this is not my advice, but I think it's so powerful. You have so much expertise and knowledge that it is almost selfish to keep it to yourself and not share it with somebody else.
So if you are able to get over yourself for 30 seconds and give advice that could literally change somebody's life, then that, and if you keep that to yourself, that is selfish, but if you share that with somebody, that is like the most powerful thing you could do. So kind of kicking yourself in the pants a little bit to like, share the thing that you know you know to somebody else is so powerful and can help you kind of get over the, the camera, chatting to the camera thing.
Kym: I love that.
Laura: And just pretend you're talking to a friend is most helpful,
Kym: And that's my strategy for public speaking in general. People ask, I hate, I talk about that all the time on this podcast. I hate public speaking. I get so anxious. I hate it so much. But I try to remember that exact advice. I don't remember who I heard it from. But yeah, it's so helpful to be like, all right, just get over yourself.
Like it's not that big of a deal. And this is actually interesting and helpful information that you have to share.
Laura: if you, yeah, I mean, if you think about how many people post things on the internet every day, like, embarrassing things, like, I know we've all seen people doing embarrassing things, and they still hit publish on the internet, and you talking is And not a big deal. It
Kym: And people actually like, like the embarrassing, like authentic, like real stuff, like, you know, from my experience, you
Laura: They do. They do. I tell my travel creator clients, like, show us how horri like, people love to watch you suffer. I'm sorry. They do. Like, if you are stuck in this, in this horrible situation, like, have a 30 hour layover or something, like, people love that. And I don't know whether we should be concerned about that or not yet, but it does perform well.
Kym: think people can commiserate, like you could feel the pain, you know, it's like, Oh my God. I, Oh my God. I remember that time I was stuck in that airport. That was so awful. I feel so bad for her. But it's like, what is she going to do? How's she going to handle it? You know, like that kind of thing. Yeah.
Laura: And you can learn a lot about how people when they share situations like that, how they, you just learn a lot about people when they share from a place of oh my gosh, I'm dealing with something that is horrible. And that can also help you learn, is this the right person for me? Did they handle this situation that to them was like Mount Everest, but to us is like not a big deal in a way that, you know, doesn't feel icky or like put you off, then that can help you learn a lot about whether they're your person or not.
Kym: I like that too. And it's also like if they don't like you good because like as a therapist All of us therapists have had this somebody shows up for an intake appointment with you and it's like you're in the session You're like, oh my god I do not click with this person at all. This is not gonna be fun You know, like I I mean we've all had those clients, you know where it's like, all right Well, i'm a professional.
I know how to help people i'm just gonna do it anyway But there's always that like it doesn't really click so people see you and they don't click like that's a blessing In a lot of
Laura: Yeah,
Kym: so you don't have to like endure that awful On connection or wherever you want to go disconnection or whatever it is, you know Where you're where you're not really gelling as a good fit, you know Um,
Laura: and I think like that's exactly right because if you Hopefully like you can create content that would only allow the people to get that far to an intake if they are certain or like very confident that you're their person. But I think people don't, are nervous to be a little bit, I don't have a better word than polarizing, but that's kind of it.
Like your brand should, if it is repelling people away and bringing people in, it is doing the right thing. Like if it is turning people away, you are on the right track because you're getting closer to finding the people who really want to work with you. And I think people are a little bit afraid to share, like, if you have a hot take, a hot opinion on something an unpopular opinion, I think you should share it because then you'll get a step closer to finding the right people.
It's, it's, that's an easy hack to sort of boost engagement, share a hot opinion, because people are very quick to respond and tell you what they think which is helpful and unhelpful, but.
Kym: yeah sometimes sometimes don't read the comments that they're really mean right
Laura: Right, exactly.
Kym: my gosh, or use that for your, you know, I, I love, I love the Instagram reels or whatever, when somebody is like pulling up somebody's comment, you know, and they share it on the screen and they're like, yeah, can you believe this asshole said this to me?
This, this is the truth. This is what I think about what you said. You know, I, I love those. It's so much
Laura: funny you say this, I was in a coffee shop yesterday and they have a framed photo of a Yelp review, two stars, and it says, disgustingly pro women this coffee shop, blah blah blah blah. Right next to that framed photo is merch that says, disgustingly pro women on like t shirts, sweatshirts.
It was amazing. Like rather than stooping to their level, they're like, great. You've just made us and then there's a note that like they donate their proceeds of their Pro women things to this to this foundations like this guy has no idea what he's done But instead of stooping to their level they're like, thanks.
Kym: That is so awesome. I yeah, I just love when people do stuff like that. It just, I love it. Like somebody left this comment, cause I'm all in on AI. Somebody left this comment that was like, you know, you're destroying our profession or something, you know, said something like that. And I remember I shared that in a reel.
I can't remember what Ali said, but I shared it and I was like, it was when that trend was out, like very demure, very whatever. Whatever that was I did that and I was like see how I didn't respond to this guy in a rude way and that that reel got so much engagement just because it was like You know, it was snarky.
It was like, look what this guy said and can you believe this? And of course some people in the comments were like, yeah, I agree with them and other people were like, oh my god That's ridiculous, but it got a lot of you know, engagement and my right ideal people like were with me They were like good for you for saying that to him or standing up to him or whatever.
So
Laura: Yeah, I mean if you're a therapist who is sharing online and you have a smaller community That is a little bit of a blessing in disguise because you won't get, people, you won't get as much hate. I would say 90 percent of people on the internet are great and kind. And it is only when you share, when something like really blows up, that people will share their opinions because they forget that there's a human who posted this.
And you just have to ignore them and literally not think about it because they have nothing better to do and they probably need your services, to be honest. If they're doing that, so I wouldn't let that. I mean, I've had people tell me, like, I don't want to post on Instagram because it's just people are so mean.
I'm like, people are are mean. They're mean a lot of places online though. And your tiny community starting is, they're not, they're not going to be mean, promise. And you
Kym: and you probably have raving fans that are going to defend you because that's happened to me before somebody's been like, yeah, okay, you're a jerk, you know, and here's why.
Laura: Yeah,
Kym: So a lot of times you see that too, which helps, you know, yeah,
Laura: I know.
Kym: Oh, I love all this help you're giving it's amazing. So, so I kind of heard you allude to this, but you're saying like mixing up the content styles, like always not doing a B roll or a talking head.
It sounded like you were kind of, like, advocating for a mixture of different methods, maybe to see what works and what doesn't work and that kind of thing, too.
Laura: sure. I think that you can have, there's like so much advice online on different strategies and you should post X, Y, Z a day, and you should share this hashtag and you should do this thing. And it can be so incredibly hard to know who to listen to because you'll see one reel and it says post five times a day.
That is ridiculous. And then you see another, that's like, don't do that. And you're like, well, what do I do? I think. What people need to realize is that social media is not your only marketing channel. It is one part of the whole bit. And so you don't need to be pouring so much time into Creating just for 1 marketing aspect.
I like to think of our social media as a billboard. So we are creating content that is evergreen, meaning no matter when somebody comes to your page, they can see that post and they're like, great. That's still makes sense to me. Even though it was posted 3 months ago. It's still relevant. It's not a trend and they can take the content that you've.
Shared, consume it, and then move further down your funnel. So maybe you have a call to action for them to join your newsletter or schedule a call with you. It's like, great, here's this billboard of content that is there that then I can move through and connect with this person or learn more. So I think there's a, there's a bunch of strategies. Using social media in a way that makes sense to you, or like, aligns with your goals and is not overwhelming will be far more helpful in helping you stay consistent, but also making sure your content is forever relevant to people who show up. If I was just starting somebody on social media, they start a new account, or they're like, I know I need to do this social media thing and I don't want to do it, but I'm going to,
Kym: Yeah.
Laura: I would start with sharing a few stories.
Stories go really far. A lot of people see them who don't follow you. It's very interesting. They're also the easiest to see. They're also a great low effort way to share your face. If you are nervous about that, because they go away in 24 hours. So it's not permanent. Well, it's not permanent to the outside.
Kym: Mm
Laura: and. That is what I would do. I'd focus on sharing a few behind the scenes stories. Maybe you like always go get a coffee on Friday. I would love to know what kind of coffee you drink. Would love to know, or like, what resources do you love to learn from? Things like that. I would then focus on sharing a couple of carousels about who you are and what you do and why you do it and leaving those, pin them to the top of your profile so that when somebody comes, they're like, great.
Who are, who are you? What do you do? How can you help me? Those are always there for somebody to learn from. Then you can kind of when you're doom scrolling online and you see ideas and you're like, wow, this therapist share this idea. I love it. I could totally see how I could replicate that for myself.
That's when you can grab that link or write down the note to yourself in your notes app or whatever you're sharing on to come back to later to then. Share again, but I would just start with something low lift like stories. It does doesn't have to be beautifully produced. You don't have to like, write a caption.
It's just a photo or video and making those 3 carousel posts and pinning them to your profile so that people can understand who you are and what you do. And then from there. I would just, if you're ready to, like, create reels or create content, I would do some b roll, do some talking head, talking about the same things that are in your first pinned posts, and do that twice a week, once a week.
Kym: Yeah. Nice.
Laura: And the most important part, I would say, is, like, engaging with other therapists. Go follow them. Go comment on their Content. See who follows them. See if any of the people who follow them might be your target client. Go, if they have a public profile, go like their things, go comment on their things. Kind of fall into that engagement loop of, I'm gonna go comment with them, engage with them, because then they'll see, oh, this therapist liked my thing.
Oh my gosh, I was looking for somebody who seems to align with this. Let me go check out their page, learn more about you. Then fall into your lead funnel. So it's very simple, but it's not easy to do
Kym: Yeah.
Laura: and I Love to do the engagement I would set like a 10 minute timer to go find other therapists to engage with and look at their followers to engage with from there Honestly 10 minutes a day can be like transformative.
I've
Kym: Wow. That's
Laura: really Awesome results from just engaging with people and not posting anything like I haven't posted something in whatever two weeks or something, but I know my audience is People are still engaging because I'm engaging with them. I'm not, like, waiting for them. So that would be, like, next level if you have time or, like, need to outsource that to somebody.
But I would start with just making your billboard. You have, like, this free space to share things with new clients That you can transform into whatever you want, but I would keep it simple
Kym: Yeah,
Laura: in the beginning.
Kym: simple now. Now, do you help with that stuff? You know, I always wonder about like creators Do you just do like the the conflict the writing and the ideas or are you somebody that's like hey if you hire me I'm gonna go in and engage on other accounts that are good for your you know Your account or your niche or whatever.
Do you do that part for your clients? Okay,
Laura: I do mostly consulting with people, so they'll come and they'll be like, Hey, what should I do? And I'm like, let me teach you how to do this engagement so you can go and do it. Rather than doing the nitty gritty of, cause like I could, I can, I have gone and engage with people in their account, but.
And I can get as close to being them as possible through, like, really learning their brand and who they are. But coming from them is obviously far better. And like, like we've kind of talked about before, if you are posting a comment on somebody's post and it's just like, wow, so great. It's not as,
Kym: Heart emoji or something. It's not like authentic, like it's not going to generate like engagement back to you. Right. Is that?
Laura: totally, yeah.
And just a few minutes a day, like, really goes a long way. Like, if I would do that more than I would post on social media, if you're listening to this, just start engaging with people rather than posting, because people like, they just want to know you exist. They don't care if you post five days a week.
They really don't. They just want to know that the content you are creating aligns with them. So if you can do that in less posts, you're winning and saving time.
Kym: Yeah. And even for therapists, like if we're commenting on other therapist posts and we, we're always like, are doing like good engagement and good, like helpful commenting, like they might be a referral network for you. They might be able to say like, Hey, I'm not taking new clients, but I know. You know, traveling therapist Kim always talks about OCD in my comments.
So let me refer you to her, you know Why don't you go see if you can work with her because I'm not doing that kind of work anymore or whatever, you know
Laura: Totally, I think like the community you can build with your peers online by doing that is so valuable because then you become the go to person for x thing. And that's what you, that's what you need. You need people who like the networking that can come from it alone is more powerful than trying to get cold leads in.
Kym: yeah, like a pamphlet to a doctor's office, which is such a outdated marketing But I still hear people say that all the time like print some pamphlets and send them to all the doctors around, you know I mean, I don't know how well that works
Laura: yeah, no, instead you should just have a great relationship with that doctor so when they're meeting with their patients to be like, hey, I actually know someone who would be really helpful for you. That is far better than the pamphlets nobody wants to pick up and read.
Kym: Yeah, like help help their clients in the comments of Instagram, you know, and then that doctor's like, okay This is a therapist I can refer to you. Yeah, I mean, there's so many creative ways to do that
Laura: yeah, yeah. And starting with like, if you did want to engage with doctors, start with the doctors in your local area, don't go start engaging on a post with a doctor who lives thousands of miles from you. That's like, that might, that might be helpful. It might,
Kym: Especially for therapists, because we can only see clients that are state of licensure. So, you know, why would you go outside of your, like, state of licensure when doing stuff like that? Yeah, that's your goal. But if you have multiple income streams and you're selling courses also about OCD to everybody in the world, like, that's okay.
Like, you've
Laura: right, that's true,
Kym: around it.
Laura: right. And that comes back to just your goals. Like, why are you even on this to begin with? Are you on it because you feel like you have to be? Are you on it because you have a course to sell? Great. Yeah, but either way, I think starting with whether you do have a big course to sell to anybody could buy anywhere or your one on one services in your specific state, starting with the people who are physically close to you, engaging with them online is a great.
Great start, because then it's like, oh, then they start engaging with someone the next date over, and they might be the person who wants to buy your course.
Kym: Right.
Laura: Starting small with the people in front of you. That's like what I think people forget about creating community, or like building community. They want to keep growing online, but they forget that the people who are already in your community are gonna be the ones who will help you grow more because of that networking.
So it's not constantly about, oh my gosh, I'm gonna use this trending, trendy content to get more cold leads. It's like, no, I'm going to really focus on being nice and genuinely wanting to connect with the people who are in front of me so that I can reach more people that way and getting referrals.
Kym: Yep. Oh gosh. Awesome. I love it. I could talk about this all day. I know we're almost out of time. So how do people if they want to work with you? I guess, I mean, I knew you do travel content writing that you're at travel content writing right here, but where you work with like a therapist is like, Hey, can you consult with me?
Like with systems and, and like some ideas so I can just get on the right track with this. Okay, cool.
Laura: Totally. I have worked with, oh my god, a multitude of different business owners. You name the niche, I've probably helped someone in it. It's insane. Like, from pet a vet to, like, education, everything in between. Yes. So, like, the best, I would say the best thing to do if you're listening to this and you're like, this sounds great, but am I really The type of person who can go and implement this on my own.
Like I, I need like a framework that's where I can help you in a one on one session to give you personalized feedback and guidance on like, Hey, this is great. What you have is great. And here's like actionable, tiny steps you can take rather than like, here's a six month content plan, go create it. Like that's not realistic.
So that, that a consultation session, a coaching session, a strategy session, whatever you want to call it, that 60 minutes is. It's going to be super helpful to do that.
Kym: So how did they find you?
Laura: Yes, you can find me on Instagram at Travel Content Writing. You can go to my website, it's travelcontentwriting. com. That is, it's being rebuilt.
Maybe by the time this is out, it will be new. But you, it still, it still is working. You can go there. Instagram is where I am most active. So if you send me a message there, I will see it. But those are great places to find me if you want. More marketing advice. I have a podcast. It's for travel influencers, which is not you,
Kym: to that.
Laura: but if you want if you want Let's say you want to be like him.
You're like great I want to do what Kim does and go to all these beautiful places and now I'm crushing it and I am and you want tips on how to make your Online business, a little bit easier. That podcast is travel, the travel creator podcast. So you can go find that there too.
Kym: thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us today. You guys, of course, all this information will be in the show notes. If you want to reach out to Laura and work with her.